On Monday, Nov. 4, Oswego State hosted a discussion honoring Dr. Mary Walker and her writings on interpersonal violence, sexual discrimination and harassment.

The meeting began with Mary McCune from the Oswego State history department. She spoke about the history of women’s rights as well as topics including violence against children and wives. Her role was to give context to Walker’s texts.

She mentioned that by the 1830s, the idea of “family privacy” became existent. 

“We start to develop this notion of the private and public sphere, so men belong in the public sphere, with law, government, etc. Women belong in the private sphere, women and children,” McCune said.

McCune then dove into the 1870s, where the temperance movements really picked up. Walker was very vocal about temperance, as well. The thought process at the time was if men stopped drinking, they would stop acting violently towards their wives and children.

In about 1850, according to McCune, 19 states granted divorce for cruelty, which was not extremely defined. Another reason a woman could file for divorce was “habitual drunkness,” which ties into the focus on the temperance movement.

McCune said New York state had some of the most restrictive divorce laws in the country at the time.

“In order to get a divorce in New York state in the early 19th century, you had to prove that there was adultery, and [to prove] that there was adultery, you usually needed two witnesses,” McCune said. 

In 1852, the movement to expand reasons for divorce started, as well as the beginnings of social purity reforms, including raising the age of consent. 

After McClune provided context about the societal environment, Oswego town historian George DeMass gave more insight on Walker herself, as well as her written works.

“She was a visionary, and there are very few visionaries around,” he said, reflecting on her work. 

The second book Walker wrote, entitled “Unmasked,” described her thoughts on how society affected men. In the book, she said, “Men will be better when true principles of social life are truly unmasked.” Other ideas and concepts she discussed in her book was that men needed to better understand women, and that women needed to feel free to make their own decisions and initiate sexual relationships, which strongly differed from the typical thoughts of the time.

Although it was eventually published in 1878, Walker originally struggled to publish the book, due to how controversial it was. She did not even put her name on the book, due to the controversial topics. DeMass brought a copy of her book for attendees to look at. 

To finish out the presentation, Title IX coordinator Lisa Evaneski spoke about more present-day interpersonal violence and sexual discrimination and harassment. In 1972, the Title IX act was put into words to prevent sex-based discrimination in programs. In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act was enacted.

“That’s when the federally recognized definitions of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, things like that come about,” Evaneski said. “Back then, they were really hoping that all of the numbers they were seeing, all of the things going on would be reduced, and then in 2011, they found out, no, that in fact didn’t happen, there would be more cases.”

Evaneski walked through the various Dear Colleague Letters, or DCLs, from 2001, 2011, 2014 and 2015.  2001’s DCL expressed that more had to be done in regard to sport discrimination. 2011’s DCL asked for a better job to be done with regards to dealing with students and colleagues affected by sexual discrimination and harassment. 2014’s DCL clarified certain terms, and 2015’s DCL brought about article 129B, which provided strict regulations on sexual harassment, discrimination and violence. 

Evaneski also discussed the dangers of victim blaming, an issue that was prevalent during Walker’s time as well as in the present day.

“I feel it’s really irresponsible for us to put things out there that are like, ‘here are your safety tips.’ I feel like we’re still seeing that a lot. We don’t have those things on our page, but what I was shocked at was how many things like this are still current,” Evaneski said.

 In order to combat that, there are campaigns such as the “the way I dress is not a yes” movement, trying to end victim blaming in circumstances of sexual assault or harassment. Evaneski said this was this generation’s campaign, meaning what they are focusing on in comparison to other generations’ campaigns to fix other societal issues, which this presentation showed sometimes are not too far off from the past.

“[Walker] would be very happy that, 100 years later, people would be realizing what she wrote on interpersonal relationships,” DeMass said.

Photo by Julia Tilley | The Oswegonian